Live Portrait AI Video Effect

Live Portrait wakes up an old photograph. Within the first second the person in the picture blinks and draws a breath while the grain and paper texture stay. By the second second color starts flooding into the image from the center outward, everything warming into natural tones, until the whole picture is in full color by the fourth second. They turn their eyes to the lens and break into a warm smile, and the final frame is a living, full-color portrait still inside its paper border.

In our test runs on MiniMax H3, a mid-century black-and-white studio portrait of a young Southeast Asian woman with sculpted vintage waves and a white mandarin-collar blouse with a round brooch came to life: she blinked and drew a breath within the first second, red bloomed on her lips and color spread through the picture by second two, the photo was in full warm color by second three, and she ended smiling broadly at the lens with the paper border and grain still intact.

Old black-and-white or faded portraits, ideally with a white paper border, work best, since the color change is the main moment. Already colorful modern photos have little to add. Clear, front-facing faces keep the blink and smile natural, and very damaged or blurry photos can look uncertain when animated.

It runs on MiniMax H3 for five seconds by default, and H3 itself goes up to 15 seconds and 2K if you want more. Studio also lets you move the same prompt to another model before you generate, such as Seedance 2.0 or Wan 3.0, and the price on the Generate button updates with every change. Our samples were all made on MiniMax H3, so other models will read the prompt in their own way.

Meaningful for family history, tribute videos and anniversary clips.

The prompt says "color starts flooding into the image from the center outward" and "break into a warm smile". Try asking for a gentler, softer expression, or for the color to stay muted and sepia.